Cosmos Blog

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

At this time of
the year, I am always saying “ I can’t believe it’s already the end of year" Christmas is just
around the corner.

Well, Santa may
not be scheduled to come to little Sho (my grandson, 1 year and 9 months old)
this year, instead, my husband and I invited his family to Adventure World at Shirahama at the end of November.

As is always the
case with training animals, I hear the knack of training a dolphin is to reward
it with food for every successful performance. However, the first step is to
build a trusting relationship by taking good care of them. Dolphins are said to
be naturally smart and playful. A trainer says she just waits for them to get
interested in doing something and encourages them to do more and further. Eventually they try to reward her patience and tender loving care with their good performance. Pleasure becomes mutual. I don't know how long it has taken but their wonderful art of collaboration was amazingly fun and moving.

Dolphines are moving around with a trainer on their heads affectionately and proudly.

A young white bear
was playing with a ball jumping in and out of water, making a splash.

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A penguine was just like Sho

A giant panda was nonchalantly
munching bamboo leaves in a leisurely manner. That reminded me when my family
went to see a giant panda at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo some decades ago. Two giant
pandas were given from China to commemorate restoration of diplomatic
relations with Japan in 1972. They died in around ten years, however, at that time
there was another one. It was still the center of attraction and all we
remembered was a large crowd with the attendants urging us visitors to move
forward without stopping. This time visitors
were few and we enjoyed watching them in our own time. Soon after that I knew
twin cubs were born here.

My cat Coo is very
curious about Sho’s plaything. While Sho is at my house, Coo usually keeps his distance from him and peeps at
him playing with those things in the nook. “When cat’s away”, Coo will play. After Sho is gone,
the world is Coo’s oyster. Who knows when Coo will be a performing cat; counting the
number or spotting colors..

Saturday, October 18, 2014

The third trip with my sisters and
brothers-in-law was to Tomonoura (鞆の浦) in Fukuyama, Hiroshima.This quiet peaceful inland seascape explains
itself. Tomonoura, situated at a bay facing the Seto Inland Sea, is part of
Seto Inland Sea National Park; the first national park in Japan,

The big island in the middle left is Sensuijima Island

The circular shaped historic harbor also makes Tomonoura famous. It has retained harbor facilities since Edo Period (1600-1867) such as
a lighthouse, old fashioned stair-like pier.

As a hub port, it was thriving. Geographically
the current changes around there, so it was called the port “waiting for the tide
has changed”

At water front with lots of fishing
boats. You can see an iconic lighthouse at the bay in the far right of the
picture. The port is now mostly used for fisheries. Red sea bream (真鯛) fishing is famous. They served excellent dishes at the hotel we
stayed.

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light house

A well-known animated movie producer Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli was also fascinated and inspired by this place and stayed here for two months, developing the idea for “Ponyo”（崖の上のポニョ）

at a lounge at the hotel we stayed

This ferry boat is modeled after
Irohamaru that was a merchant ship Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867) got a lease on to carry supplies
from Nagasaki to Osaka.

However, the collision off Tomonoura wrecked
and sank it along with its shipment in 1869. The wreckage was discovered by the
volunteer group here more than 100 years later and are exhibited at Irohamaru
Museum.

This renewed ferry gets you to Sensuijima
Island（仙酔島; the island beautiful enough to
mesmerize even legendary mountain hermit）in
five minutes. I’d like to visit it again
to lose myself in that ancient nature.

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A crab (forefront) holding a small sardine crawls up from the sea.
I wonder where it carries the catch.

Taichoro (対潮楼), adajacent to Fukuzenji Temple, was used as a guest house during Edo Period. Then Korean emissary admired the
view from here and called it the most beautiful scenery of all Japan

Recently Tomonoura has attracted a lot of
attention with a campaign to save the symbolic view of harbor from being
spoiled by the prefectural government plan to build a bridge there. The District
Court issued an injunction to suspend the plan. I hope other alternative plan to
revitalize the region will be successful.

Haru-no-umi (春の海 the sea in spring) was composed by Michio Miyagi(1894-1956) from his memory of Tomonoura he saw as a child before he lost his sight at the age 8.

It was his father's home village.

This trip was to celebrate my
sister’s publishing her first tanka poems and to celebrate brother-in-law’s birthday as well.

The title "半透明のカプセル”（Translucent Capsule） is taken
from her poem;

父と母の 共に在りし日 やはらかき 半透明のカプセルに包む

( I'd wrap in a soft translucent capsule/ the days when Father and Mother
were alive )

This capsule contains lots of her precious history that I
could open and take out anytime I'd like to. The memory of this trip will be stored in my own capsule in my heart.

The thing I was worried was how the weather
would be during the trip because it had been very unstable in most part of the
country.

When we left the hotel for the highland in
the early morning because the weather forecast said it was likely to rain in
the afternoon, we saw thick mists covering the mountain ranges. The weather makes or breaks the pleasure of Alpine
views. Poor visibility due to a bad weather could spoil this holiday…

However, Lady Luck was with us.

When we came out ofKurobe Dam station(1470 meter above sea
level) after a 16-minute trolly bus ride through the tunnel followed by climbing
up 200 stairs, to my joy, a clear grand view came into my eyes.

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Kurobe Lake

Kurobe Dam(1450m) discharges more than 10 tons
of water per second from the gate every day from late June to mid October.

After a while, sunshine in the morning made a rainbow over clouds of spray.

We walked over the dam to Kurobeko（黒部湖）station to take a cable car to kurobedaira（黒部平）

Mount. Tateyama Range (3015m), a part of
Northern Japan Alps, with mists rising up was clearly seen from there.

It seems ages since my family took a trip altogether last time. This time a 17-month-old Sho joined. It made his grandpa all the happier. Sho is his pride and joy!

at the obsevation deck at Kurobe Dam

Can you see a square framed grayish structure in the mid right of this picture?

That is Daikanbo(大観峰 2316m) station on the side of the Tateyamas, where a ropeway carries
us tourists up to. The 1.7km long ropeway connecting Kurobedaira (黒部平1828m) station with Daikanbo station has no single support towers between
the two to protect surrounding mountain scenery.

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This photo was taken on the way back

Kurobe Lake seen from higher observation deck

At Daikanbo we again changed from a ropeway to a
trolly bus running through the tunnel crossing just below the Tateyamas to the
other side of it. That was our destination: Murodo(室堂2450m), the highest point of the route. This whole route directly connects Nagano Prefecture with neighboring Toyama Prefecture, however, we left our car at the hotel so we had to return from there.

The scenery before us was beyond my wildest
dreams.

Mikuriga-ike Pond;
caldera lake

Mikuri means “the kitchen for the deity”.
They say the dishes for an offering to the deity of Mount.Tateyama were
made here by using this water.

As you can see from the picture, this place offers accommodation facilities such as Japan's highest situated hotel or lodges or camp grounds.

There are a variety of hiking trails leading to the summit of the mountain(3015m).
You can enjoy leisure walk as well. With little Sho with us, we took one hour walk
around the Mikurigaike Pond. A patch of snow still remains.

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I recognized a volcanic activity by a sulfurous
odor in the air near Hell Valley （地獄谷）

Through telephoto lens, hikers looked like
a procession of ants on the ridge line.

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"Here's looking at you, kid"

It was a perfect day. Among others, I was
happy to share the joy with my family

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Nara Toka-e (奈良燈花会; the candle festival) is an annual event held
at Nara Park for ten days from August 5th to 14th. 20,000
candles at several venues gently adorn an ancient capital of Japan 1300 years
ago. They are lit up by volunteers one by one to pray for people’s happiness by
candlelight. .

After going to the
concert, my husband and I strolled around the Nara Park to enjoy Tokae.

Candlelights set on the green grass and around the pond
were suitable to surroundings, making a soothing, peaceful ambience.

looking down at Sarusawa-ike Pond

Candles were lined
along the bridge leading to the pavilion. The reflection in the water turned
the pond to a heavenly place. Can you see some people paddling ?

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Well Sakura, cherry
blossoms, are giving way to fresh leaves around here now but to conclude this
year's Sakura groupie I went to Mt.Yoshino, Nara. In season, they started
blooming from lower areas called Shimo-senbon, then moving up to Naka-senbon (
middle areas) and to Kami-senbon (upper ones) , finally up to the inner areas
called Oku-senbon. Senbon means 1000 trees, so totally there should be 4000 but
actually there is said to be around 30,000 now.

seen from Hanayagura (花矢倉）at Kami-senbonThe
cherry tree legend at Mt.Yoshino started when En-no-Ozunu, a founder of Shugendō religion, engraved
the image of Zaōgongen, a kind of deity, on a cherry tree when he attained
enlightenment after a 1000 day- ascetic- training in the mountain in the latter
half of 7th century.

Since
then worshippers have offered and planted cherry trees.

Many
of Sakura here are Shiroyama-zakura or Oriental Cherry. The flowers bloom at
the same time as a bit reddish new leaves appear so you can tell from Somei-yoshino,
whose flowers bloom first.

I have been here several
times in spring, in summer and in autumn. There are so many historical figures
related to this place but I’d like to say a bit about two of them today. First,
Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune. Last year when I visited Yoshimizu Shrine, I saw these
kimonos related to Shizuka-Gozen, Yoshitsune’s lover, on display. This was the
place where they hid themselves from a party of pursuers. She danced the last
dance for Yoshitsune on their painful parting here (1185), then he left her and
continued running away.

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Shizuka-Gozen

Yoshitsune (1159-1189) was expelled by his brother, Yoritomo and ended up
killing himself at the age of 31. With this tragic life and death despite his great
accomplishment in the battle against the Taira clan, he has been favored by many
Japanese who sympathized his misfortune and unfulfilled potentiality. "Hangan-biiki"
came from him that means to sympathize and support the weaker side who has
enough ability. As is often the case with the popular personalities in the
history, there are many other stories about him, however, this mentality has been
familiar to many Japanese people.

Secondly, speaking of Sakura of Yoshino, we can’t forget the well-
known poet, Saigyo(1118-1190) . He
was once an Imperial Palace Guard (北面の武士）for the retired Emperor, which was assigned to young warriors who
were excellent both in literary and military arts and good looking as well.
However, he became a Buddhist monk, for reasons unknown, at age 23. He
travelled a lot, making soul-searching journeys and one of his favorite places
was Yoshino. He loved Sakura very much and wrote many poems about them.

吉野山 こぞのしをりの道かへて まだ見ぬかたの 花をたづねむ

“I’ll forget the
trail I marked out on Mount Yoshino last year, so go searching for blossoms in
directions I’ve never been before” ( translated by Watson Burton)

Before Saigyo’s
time, Sakura blossoms in the mountain were objects to be admired in their
imagination and written in the poem but Saigyo is said to be the first to go and
see in the mountain and appreciate Sakura at first hand.

願わくは花の下にて春死なむ そのきさらぎの望月のころ

“Let me die in
spring under the blossoming trees, let it be around that full moon of Kisaragi
month” (translated by Watson Burton)

This “Kisaragi”means
February but in the new calendar it is around the end of March; Gautama Buddha
was supposed to have died on Kisaragi 15. Though this poem wrote many years
before Saigyo’s death, the fact he actually passed away just as he wished and
yet just one day later than Buddha’ssurprised
and amazed people in those days.

仏には桜の花をたてまつれわが後の世を人とぶらはば“Please offer
Sakura flowers if there would be someone mourn for me”

taken last May

Here is a humble cottage
where he is believed to have stayed for a while

at Okusenbon, where it is
enclosed with forest. There are high summits and ridges and eroded V-shaped
valleys leading to Kumano, Wakayama, so called Ōmine-okugake Route (大峯奥駆道）

; one of pilgrimage routes as well as Shugendo practitioners training route.

Yoshitsune's another hideout was 20 minutes' walk down from here.

Sakura trees at Okusenbon are
not many, besides, I heard they were not blooming yet, so I didn’t visit it this
time. I imagine how he would see and
admire Sakura.